Category Archives: Web World

In my daily web surfing I come across interesting sites, tools, trends and blog posts. Here’s the fun online “stuff” worth sharing.

Internet addiction

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Every get antsy because your computer ran out of battery? Do get cold sweats when the signal on your phone is week and you can’t access emails? Do you check Twitter as the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning (I’ll regret it later, but I will admit to this one)? If so, then I’ve got some bad news for you my friend…

You might as well face it, you’re addicted to the Internet.

internet-addictionWell, maybe YOU aren’t, but Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) affects thousands of people in the US and millions around the world. So much so that there are special rehab centers for Internet addicts and intervention programs to treat this kind of affliction.

The problem is especially prevalent in China, where over 10 million people are thought to be truly addicted. (China’s problem was in the news recently as it was revealed that institutionalized Internet addicts were abused while in care.)

But is it a real disorder? It’s not listed as an official mental problem yet, but most of us know someone who’s just on the wrong side of obsessive when it comes to Internet usage. Whether it’s compulsive gaming or blogging, IAD is a reality in today’s world.

Signs of Internet addiction

Since it’s not officially classified yet, there are no symptoms, per se, but the following are common (and a little obvious) behaviors exhibited by Internet addicts:

  • Being preoccupied with Internet activity (you can’t wait until you’re online again and feel anxious when you know you can’t get online)
  • You feel like you need more and more time on the Internet to feel satisfied
  • You’ve tried to cut back your usage, but have failed to do so
  • You don’t feel like yourself unless you’re on the Internet
  • You’ve neglected relationships or work for surfing the Internet
  • You’ve lied to people about being on the Internet (you feel like you have to hide your usage; you feel guilty about it)
  • Going on the Internet is the main thing that makes you feel better
  • You’ve withdrawn from “real world” activities

Curious as to how bad you’re getting with your internet usage? Take this quick quiz to see if you’re a healthy online surfer or if you should tone down your usage.

Find out more about IAD from the CNN story below as well as from Mashable’s coverage of the problem.

Engage your staff with Tweetfunnel

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Have you ever wondered how you could engage your staff on Twitter? Have you ever wanted to give multiple users access to your company’s Twitter account but you were scared of what they could potentially put on there? Have you asked users to email you their tweets so that you could copy and paste them in a tweet yourself? If you answered yes to any of these questions, Tweetfunnel is the tool for you. I’ve been using it for almost two months now at Real Insurance and I absolutely love it. It’s a great tool for the corporate Twitter user.

What is Tweetfunnel

tweetfunnel logoTweetfunnel is a Twitter tool for team tweeting – one of those “why didn’t someone do this sooner” tools that make your tweeting life easier. It’s a web based tool which allows you to manage multiple users, tweets and Twitter accounts all in one interface. It’s like a work flow manager for your company’s Twitter accounts. It has definitely made my company’s Twitter use easier and more efficient.

How Tweetfunnel works & its best features

Manage multiple users with various roles – With Tweetfunnel, you can give multiple users access to publish tweets to a single Twitter account. This is great for companies who get a lot of feedback from customers on Twitter or whose brand receives a lot of mentions and thus is quite active on Twitter. There are user roles as well so you can have certain users who can only submit tweets while others who have editing and publishing power.

Edit posts before they’re published – Let’s say you you have a some users whose grammar isn’t stellar. With Tweetfunnel, you can set their permissions such that someone with good grammar can edit their tweets before they are published. No matter what the reason for it, you can edit all posts before they go live on Twitter.

Schedule posts for later – Sometimes you have a lot to say in a short period of time, but your followers may not be thrilled to receive 10 tweets in a row from you. With Tweetfunnel, you can schedule tweets at regular intervals on either weekdays or every day. A new feature coming next month will let users define multiple windows for scheduling tweets to further customise what you want to say and when.

Links shortened automatically – All your links are shortened automatically using bit.ly. What’s even better is that you can automatically track clicks from within Tweetfunnel.

Tweet via email or SMS – This function is not rolled out yet either, but in the future you will be able to send tweets via SMS or email.

Holding tweets – Do you ever have a gem of a tweet and you forget to write it down and when you want to reference it you can’t seem to find it in your Twitter stream? That’s what the “hold” feature is for. Hold any tweets you think you might want to look at later.

Get started right away

Tweetfunnel is a free tool. It’s currently in Beta so there are a few kinks to iron out (we’ve had a few instances where we’d edit a tweet and it would still publish the original), but it’s really awesome already. There are some tutorials on the Tweefunnel site, but the tool is very intuitive so I don’t think you’ll even need them. Also, if you check out their homepage, they’ve just announced a few very exciting new features, some of which I mentioned above.

Tweetfunnel was a godsend to me. One day we were brainstorming how else we can use social media in our company and the next day I read about Tweetfunnel on Tech Crunch. I love it and so will you.

P.S. No, I’m not a shareholder nor am I involved with Tweetfunnel in any other way. Thought I’d mention that in case anyone doubted why I’m raving about it. :)

Navigating the social media landscape

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As a company, what can you do with social media? How do you get started? How do you even know what your options are? I’ve gone through that confusion. Believe me, I know how you feel. Through the course of my blog I hope that I will help fellow web professionals answer those questions for their companies. For now, I offer you one of the best visual social media devices I’ve come across. I hope it will get you started in outlining what your options are.social media landscape

As I prepare for adtech Beijing, I’ve been looking for some good images to use in my presentation and I came across one of my favourite representations of social media (above). Although it’s incomplete, it neatly categorizes the main types of activities that are possible in the social web world.

Social media landscape

The main activities the graphic outlines that companies can engage in are to: publish, share, discuss, network, microblog, live-stream, livecast, live in a virtual world, participate in or create social and MMO games. Depending on what you’re trying to achieve, what industry you’re in and what your company culture is, you may do any combination of these activities. Because there are so many potential ways for a customer to engage with your brand/company, it’s extremely important to set a clear social media strategy and not just write off social media as a fluffy trend the tech companies are doing. Literally every company can go social. Knowing how to get started can be a little confusing, though.

What Real Insurance does with social media

As an insurance company with a transparent and honest (but somewhat laid-back) culture, at Real Insurance we focus mainly on the “share” and “microblog” aspects of the social media landscape wheel. Why? Because our primary objectives are to manage our brand reputation and engage our customers (with a secondary objective of lead generation). All else is just icing on the cake.

We actively monitor what’s being said about Real via tools like SocialMention and we respond to feedback on our brands, be it good or bad. Where we can’t respond because the site doesn’t allow it, we use Sidewiki to comment. If the feedback is good, we’ll thank you. If it’s bad, we’ll admit if we’re wrong and we’ll do our best to rectify the situation. That’s why we have clear work flows internally for following up on any complaints that we see in the social world. The end result? Having as much control as possible over our brand, customers who know they are being heard and staff empowered to help customers.

How you can get started with your social media strategy

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” It’s an ancient Chinese proverb which rings true in the case of social media strategy as well. Start small. Set up a blog. If you can, get your CEO to blog. After all, he/she is the expert on your company. Set up a Twitter account. Then use Twitterfeed to automatically tweet new posts to Twitter. There, you’re already social! After that, check out the many resources on social media on Mashable to start learning.

Get your feet wet with Twitter and absorb everything you read. Think it through and outline a strategy that makes sense for your company. Then slowly add channels as appropriate. Remember another Chinese proverb: “Don’t be afraid of growing slowly. Be afraid only of standing still.”

Good luck with your social media activities. It’s a very exciting space where brands can really get close to their customers and create positive interactions between the commercial and “real” world. I, for one, can’t wait to see what cool new tool or networks comes out next.

Are you too old for social media?

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That’s the question I heard this morning on the radio while on my way to the airport. I couldn’t believe that after the tremendous growth social media has enjoyed in recent years (and especially in the last year with the advent of Twitter) people still see it as a fad, as “the thing kids are doing.” In fact, callers suggested that people over 40 should be banned from social media.

Here’s a newsflash to all those silly people – social media is not a fad. It’s a communication tool which will forever change human interactions around the world.

Here are some telling Facebook stats in Australia:

- There are an estimated 6.1 million users registered in Australia. (I got the Facebook stats by setting up an ad in Facebook which lets you progressively narrow down your target audience by entering various parameters. If you select all Australian accounts, you get just over 6.1 million)

- Of those, 2.8 million are over 30 and 1.4 million are over 40.

- According to Comscore, 3 out of 4 Australians visited a social networking site in 2009.

There’s no doubt that the world is becoming smaller as we all gain access to each other via social networks. Despite all the possible negative fallout this may have (relationships deteriorating, less face-to-face time, dependency on technology), I think this is great – for all ages!

Thanks to social media families separated by thousands of miles can stay connected, consumers can be more informed, politicians can relate to their constituents, just to mention a few benefits. Social media is not a fad. It’s a new communication tool just as the phone, telegraph or email were before it.

So here’s a message to all you delusional under 30′s who want to keep Facebook, etc., a stomping ground for teenagers and young singles – get over it!

Here’s the latest Australian social media data from Comscore, which shows just how active Australians are on social networks. Definitely NOT a fad!

Here are the top social networks used in Australia:

Top social networks in Australia as of June 2009

8,857,000 Total unique visitors to social networks

6,102,000 Facebook

3,530,000 MySpace

1,962,000 Windows Live profile

1,475,000 Bebo

800,000 Twitter

505,000 Deviantart.com

494,000 Digg.com

475,000 Tagged.com

409,000 Buzznet

252,000 Orkut

Social networks and insurance risk

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Can your status update change the amount of money you pay for your home or car insurance? Not yet, but I think that’s where the industry’s going in the near future. Modern technologies and resulting behaviours are impacting your risk profile so don’t be surprised if you’ll have to provide your Twitter login when you get an insurance quote in a few years time.

Take the recent study by UK insurer Legal & General which found that burglars are finding targets by searching social media sites to see a potential target’s whereabouts. The obvious way to do this is simply by searching someone’s Twitter updates to see if they’re heading out of the house or going away on holidays. A bit more Googling later and you can pretty much find all the other information you need to locate that person’s house and break in while they’re away. In other cases, the user doesn’t even need to say they’re leaving the house if they have GPS enabled on Twitter. Twitter will then automatically update your exact location with every Tweet you send from your phone. If you’re making it easy for a burglar to track your whereabouts, why should you not get penalized for that with a higher home insurance premium?

In the case of car insurance, the GPS locator as well as text of one’s Tweets could impact not only your risk evaluation but your claims process. For example, SMS-ing or using your phone is illegal in many places. If there is evidence of someone sending a Tweet (which, remember, is location stamped) while they’re supposed to be driving, then should this person not be punished with a higher premium? A recent study found that texting while driving increases crash risk 23-fold. I’m sure the same applies to posting on Twitter or Facebook while driving.

How about if someone gets into an accident and tweets something like “I just crashed into another car. Crap.” and then try to tell their insurer the accident was not their fault, should their Tweet not be used against them?

Health or life insurance premiums can also be affected by our online behaviour. Many people are using online help and support programs to lose weight or quit smoking. Both factors are quite important in health and life insurance. There’s an opportunity for health and life insurance companies to monitor their customers’ health by partnering with those websites. They could reduce premiums if they see their customers meeting their weight loss goals, for example.

Or what about pet insurance? Why not partner with major online pet pharmacies to track whether owners are filling their pets’ heartworm prescriptions regularly, or buying healthy dog food.

Travel insurers could match their premiums to the airline safety record that the passenger is taking, the crime rate of the area where their hotel is located and even the baggage replacement policy of the airline. The “safer” your trip, the less you would pay.

As we become more sophisticated in profiling customer (and user) behaviour, I think it would be very smart of insurance companies to take more than just the traditional, broad characteristics into the mix when underwriting and pricing a risk. Does it not matter more HOW someone drives versus WHAT they drive when evaluating their likelihood of getting into a car crash? I think it makes common sense. With the applications of new media, social networks and the resulting customer behaviour, I think there’s a lot of opportunities for insurance companies to be a bit innovative and create new products and be more profitable by being better at writing risks, and for consumers to pay a fair price for the insurance they specifically need.